Easy Homemade Chili with Bacon

This post is sponsored by Bush’s Best Beans in conjunction with The Women Bloggers.

My husband loves a good homemade chili recipe, it’s one of the most requested dinner items from him. I also love chili but I like to change things up, so for this recipe, I decided to add some bacon to the chili. Let me tell you, it came out amazing! So much flavor. The bacon gives it a nice smokey flavor which is a great addition to this chili recipe.

Seriously, you have to try this!

Easy Homemade Chili with Bacon

You are welcome to use dry beans in this recipe but part of the reason this is my go to recipes is because I use canned beans. I don’t always have time to cook dry beans so I love having Bush’s Best Beans on hand. Believe me, they come in handy!

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of ground beef ( I use 93/7)
• 1 pound bacon, chopped
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 3 teaspoons cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cups tomato juice
• 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 15 ounce can tomato sauce
• 16 ounce can Bush’s kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 16 ounce can Bush’s Pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• Shredded cheese, green onions, cilantro and sour cream, for topping

Directions:

In a large stockpot, cook bacon until crispy.

Once your bacon is cooked, remove bacon and drain all of the grease, except 1 tablespoon.

Add your onions and bell peppers to the stockpot and saute until tender. Once your veggies are tender and in the garlic and saute for 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove your vegetables from the pan and set aside.

Cook your ground beef until no longer pink.

Add your vegetables and bacon to the ground beef mixture along with the tomato sauce, tomato juice, diced tomatoes and both cans of beans.

Mix everything together until fully combined.

Add in all of the spices and stir well to ensure the spices are mixed in.

Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and let simmer for at least one hour. Depending on how much time I have, sometimes I let the chili simmer for a few hours.

Top with your choice of toppings and enjoy!